The Drinker 1914

Umberto Boccioni made “The Drinker” with oil on canvas. What’s interesting here is how Boccioni’s really working the surface of the painting, you can almost feel the brushstrokes, a kind of energetic layering of paint. It’s like he’s not just representing a scene, but really building it up, bit by bit. Look at how he handles the yellows and browns of what looks like crumpled fabric. They’re not just flat colors but have a texture and form, making them look like they’ve been sculpted. There’s a real physicality to how Boccioni applies the paint, with thick impasto in some areas and thinner, more transparent washes in others, almost like he's moving between solid and liquid states. That broken cup really sings, it's a bit chaotic but also somehow balanced. It's like when you look at a Cezanne and see how the touch of the brush really makes the apple exist.